MLScherbatov's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Grassurai]

music is nice, graphics are alright, but throw doesnt seem to work. you should explain to us that we can double jump by attacking. this move seems to be a little iffy as well. anyways i like the game. id like to see it a little more polished. overall seems surprisingly nice compared to most of the stuff i see in 24 hr game jams, so nice work.

[SonOfVayuGameBoy]

as everyone else said, you need to fix the jump button. i dont think anyone here even finished the first level, so maybe fix the basic elements of the game before adding more levels

[Engineer Millionaire]

i was really surprised that you asked for crash info, thats pretty cool of you and something i have not often seen in a browser game before

the balloon machine is pretty much useless because of how little money it produces, and the coal mining isnt very profitable because the sonar just doesnt work fast enough. all the money we have to invest in either of these would be better put into the money machine.

we should be able to delete or move machines if we want to. its very unclear how things work at the beginning of the game and if more space is going to cost money then we should have some basic guidelines laid out before we place permanent structures. my factory is doing ok but its about 50% wasted space because i cant get rid of the crappy design i made while trying to figure out how the game works.

the initial money machine is in a visually appealing position but a very inefficient one. two money machines can be fit in one room if i place them properly

money stompers dont really turn any kind of a profit, they just waste space where another money machine could be placed

trapdoors wont let you click on them if there are coins blocking the floor. there appears to be no reason to click on the coins, so idk why they would cause this problem, or why the trapdoors even close in the first place.

it would be helpful if we could zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, and if we could hold the zoom buttons instead of having to click them repeatedly

imo we should be able to link cogwheels together using a chain/rope/etc. you have this for the engine's cog, so it shouldnt be too hard to add it for stand alone gears right?

its unclear what effect upgrading the bank has

after placing a second coal harvester, i found that i was only allowed to build a drill on the original mine. this renders additional mines completely redundant.

we should have a lot more horizontal space imo, which would also help resolve a lot of mining issues

****came back next day****
i placed a money machine facing a wall and the coins just fall out of the building and through the ground. i cant turn the machine around or move it, so im losing more than a million dollars on that and the purchase of the room.

placed a balloon machine with its cog clearly in contact with two other already spinning gears, but the cog wont spin without me touching it.

GeneralVimes responds:

Thank you very much for such detailed info. I keep working on the game and definitely expanded my TODO list.
As for the balloons: at first they bring little money, but their income stacks up.

Maybe the game wikia will be useful: https://steampunk-idle-spinner.fandom.com/wiki/Assembly_line

[LootBox: Colectionism]

interesting but really hollow lol, controls are unclear, no sound etc, i know its a prototype but in the current state it would be best as just like a looping gif for the background of a game, as a trophy room in a game with other features etc. its not bad but its not entertaining :/

[Pixel Box - The Elemental Sandbox]

10k is way too few particles. i like this type of game but it was kind of impossible to really experiment when i can only fill the very bottom of the box
otherwise its got clean presentation and im not finding any glitches, but the particles spread out/flatten too much to complete anything interesting so it ends up just being like "what happens when these two things mix" and then i have to clear it to try a new combination, whereas most of these games have like... easily 10x as much space as this. i would definitely play this quite a bit more if it werent so limited

[Cheddar Panic NG: Super De-Lite]

cute. love the music and art.
-the coins should be a brighter or more noticeable color imo. sometimes they really blend into the background
-when we get on a ladder slightly to one side, it often wont let us through the gap at the top until we go all the way to the bottom and correct our position. maybe you should just have us snap to the center of the ladder automatically.
-got stuck crouching a few times. this fixed itself after a few seconds.

overall great work, i loved it, wish it was longer or had a little more story but i had a wonderful time

[Jaded Journey]

--the shop should be available at all times when dead, or at least more often. it was there for 2 deaths and now im on my 8th or 9th and have not seen it again. i have way too much gold that i dont want to just spend on consumables, even if the consumables are strong choices.

--our current and max hp, as well as the enemies, should be displayed at all times, not just when damage is taken. the current settings make it very difficult to know when i should use a potion, and tbh i think the potions should activate automatically once im at half hp since there is no possible reason i wouldnt want to use them.

--even if the background just looped, it would be much preferable for the character to move faster. as it is there doesnt seem to be any point in it moving at all because even when i kill dozens of enemies in one run ive barely moved an inch. it would also make a lot of sense to put the character in the middle of the screen/ have the enemies actually come near us since every weapon ive seen so far is melee. the skeleton king is about the only unit whose placement makes sense.

-- you really need a pause button. what if i buy 5 str potions and then have to pee? the enemies dont stop attacking when i do

-- # of str potions is always displayed at 0, im assuming because they are consumed as soon as a run begins, but idk why you have a meter there for them at all if thats how they work. seems like you should just keep the number we bought for each run at the top.

--str potions DO NOT last an entire run. i just spent 1k on them to see if it would help beat the king and im almost completely sure that they arent even having any effect. i bought like 25 of them and im still doing 20dmg per hit. i dont even know whether they were working in the first place because i would have 1 shotted the first couple of dozen enemies anyways.

--the game would be a lot better if we could get through the early enemies faster. consider making them step up pretty much instantly as soon as the previous one dies. this is especially a problem because nearly all of the enemies are a breeze until the skeleton king, who is like as strong as the last 20 units combined.

-- all the cloaked human enemies just lie down immediately and wait for me to kill them

-- i like how you've organized the resources to force a balanced build, but it seems like theres very little reason to invest in anything besides pure damage/speed until the skeleton.

--the enemies that lead up to a boss should require you to upgrade similar stats to what is required for the boss.

-- id strongly recommend that you add checkpoints. if we've killed 50 enemies, let us start at the 50th enemy the next time if we want to, or the 100th etc etc. this is especially a problem because of the huge jump in difficulty at the boss, and because we cant pause. maybe consider allowing us to set the character to auto attack, but have the attacks come less often than if we were actively clicking.

--after fighting the skeleton for the first time, i did one more run and decided to let the enemies kill me so i could write a few more points for this review. as soon as i died, every upgrade option suddenly cost 1000 points or 10,000 gold. the only stat i had maxed out was my sword. this is ridiculous. theres no way anyone wants to grind through the entire game again 10x just to get enough points for a slight upgrade, especially since we have to actively click the entire time or have to start over. oh also- the shop menu froze completely the next time i visited it.

--i refreshed the page and im suddenly starting at the skeleton king automatically? the shop is no longer glitched but in general the game seems to really be bugging out and im really only still playing so that i can finish my review at this point.

--another attempt, i die to the king and the shop has reverted my upgrades back to what i had maybe 15 minutes ago, i try again, die to the king again, and then the shop glitches and freezes again..... given that the other reviews say the game just loops after you beat the king, i have 0 motivation to finish this if its just going to keep screwing me over.

this could be a really good game but it has a lot of problems... i was going to give you a higher rating because i think this has potential, but after this maxed out upgrade price thing i have to take it down to 2.5...
its just stuck in an endless loop. im too weak to defeat the king given that it keeps taking my upgrades away, i die and go to the shop, spend a bunch of money on upgrades, try once again and die, then the shop freezes, i have to refresh, and my progress is gone again. your game is broken.....

[Nymphiad]

looks great. the controls are a bit unwieldy though. maybe make the E button to grab crates a toggle instead of having to hold it down? also respawning after dying takes a bit long for my tastes.

-pushing a crate sometimes protects me from the falling slabs on chains, but sometimes does not. this doesnt seem to have a lot to do with positioning either

- id much prefer that when i move the bottom of two stacked crates, the other crates moved with it. in the first level with those fireball launcher things this seems unnecessarily tedious

-it would be really helpful to add checkpoints to some of these levels. once i've already solved a portion of the puzzle it gets to be a chore doing it over and over just because i accidentally fall on some spikes or something, especially if it involves moving lots of boxes. this might cause problems in the more complex levels where you can put boxes in the wrong places, but u could just add a respawn button or kill key for that.

theres a lot of points where moving the crates seems inefficient er like when placing them on top of the stone slabs i often have to do more waiting than i think should be necessary/ let the stone drop down like 3 times just to put one crate on and successfully get it to the other side/upstairs etc. ill have to come back to this later i think.

Wolod responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Checkpoint might be a good idea. I'll probably add them.

There is a hint about restart key on the second level but it can be missed. Well, my bad. There are 2 ways to restart level. You can do it through pause menu (press Esc or P to pause game) or you you can use R key on keyboard or Y on gamepad.